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Friday, November 7, 2014

Milking a Cow

Yesterday we visited a dairy farm and today we milked a cow at school.
Well, not a real cow but one made from a saw horse covered with paper.
I used a milk jug, rubber glove and lots of duct tape to create an udder. It was filled with water and a bit of white paint. I had hope to harness it to our cow but the pressure on the glove when the jug was turned upside down caused leaking.
So instead we held it in the cow so the children could try it.
Prior to showing the children the udder I asked 'Where does milk come from?' and if they knew the answer was 'cow' I'd ask them "How do we get the milk out of cows?" The words 'udder' and 'teats' were new for most of the children.
This child was very interested in trying to use the udder. She worked hard squeezing the teat in different ways to get the milk to come out.
A smaller group at story time made it possible to share the udder with everyone.
One child asked if we put it in our mouth (she has a baby sister who uses a bottle). We compared the milk bottle to our udder and teat.
Our cow will be at school for next week so more families can try milking.